how has ww2 afected you today?

During WWII, my great aunts and their parents lived in London. They were bombed one night and the children were separated from the parents. The children, like a lot of children at the time, were thought to be orphans, and were sent off to Australia, where they were used as farm labor.

It was not until the 1980's that the children contacted a London radio station to put out a request and ask if anyone knew of their family, when they were shocked to find that their parents were still alive.

This happened to many families at the time of the Blitz in London

I am living in a house built for Veterans that were returning from WWII.

If the atom bomb had not been dropped neither myself, my brothers or my cousins would be here. My father and three of my uncles were captured by the Japanese during the Battle of Hong Kong. They were kept in a POW camp and starved and tortured for four and half years. If the bomb hadn't been dropped they a/ would not have been able to live through another winter and b/ the Allies would have invaded Japan. The Japanese government had instructed their military that the first time an Allied soldier set foot on Japanese land they were to start to kill all Allied prisoners of war. Without the bomb being dropped twice and the surrender of the Japanese the Allies would have had to invade Japan and my father, my uncles and thousands of other men and women Canadians, British, American, Australian, New Zealanders, Indian, Chinese etc all would have been killed. And all their ancestors including myself would not be here today.

Did you think an apple would ever set off a death-defying war story?

A friend's dad (British) once saw me eating an apple, and said, 'You know, that's a really nice looking apple there. I haven't had an apple since 1942.' Turned out when he was a little boy, he was up in a tree picking apples, when the German air force came and straffed the countryside with bullets.If grandma hadn't come and snatched him out of the tree to safety, he wouldn't be alive today.

"Do you think war has a lasting affect over 50 years". Considering that I am living in a house that was completely destroyed in the war ... and downstairs from me is the man who not only lost everything he could not drag out of the house but also rebult the house ... I think the answer is clearly yes. And I am just talking about property damage......not personal damage. Talk to anyone who lived then, and they will answer yes. Talk to anyone who has ever paid attention to anyoune who lived then, and they will answer yes.

my grandma lost some of her cousins....but they'd be dead now anyway, so it doesnt really affect me.

Do your own homework.